Warning, Practicing yoga is anti-religious (Page 2)

Why not expose them to both? One physically aggressive and a little violent and the other getting in touch with one's body and thoughts?

I laid down with my son , he is 4 the other night, and I could tell he was really thinking on something, so i asked him what he was thinking about, his reply. Puss n Boots, the movie...

Only TX kids. 

There are instructors that offer Christain-based yoga.

Not for everyone. Pretty sure it caused me more stress in elementary school than it relieved.  Of course, I was probably very helpful for relieving other kids' stress, so I guess there's that. 

Where I grew up, we didn't call it "Tackle the Man with the Football," it was "Smear the Queer."  That was in the 1980's.  Fortunately, times have changed in most places.  As a kid I never thought twice about the hateful name of the game.

As for the yoga, OH GOD! would I have been bored doing it as a kid.  I am 38 and still can't do yoga...I respect those who do it...I just have, what's the term, ants in my pants?  If it's just 1 time per week, I guess that's okay...but if PE is only 2 or 3 times a week, that's a lot of good quality games being lost!  Gimme my dodgeball (with the good ol' fashioned red-rubber balls that could be palmed by 4th graders! good enough shots left raspberries!), kickball, freeze tag, wiffle ball, etc.

I find the religious fundamentalists opposed to it ridiculously weak.  Do they really think their kids are going to flee their faith because they stretch and say some OHMMMMMMs?  How strong is your faith if you're always afraid followers will flee?  Seems to me those folks are on the insecure side.

Is the "Christain-based" yoga similar to the Chastain-based yoga?  Chastain-based yoga is usually practiced on a soccer field and culminates in a spiritual ripping off of ones top before running in a sports bra.  

Sorry, meant to write Chastain.

Ha!  Awesome comeback.  

Now that's probably some yoga I could handle...I like the yogi's chant:  "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!"

My nieces LOVE the yoga on the Wii Fit where you have to make the flame on the candle stay still by sitting still.  They can only do it for a few seconds but will do it over and over again.  It's fun to them, really.  And fun to watch! 

Seriously - yoga is great - exposure to lots of forms of exercise is wonderful. Doesn't have to religious at all - in fact isn't yoga traditionally used as a way to work the body so the mind can prepare for meditation? Go ahead and pray afterward! 

And it ain't all stretching - there are cool moves in yoga like head stands, hand stands, back bridges, and lots of other cool balancing moves that require serious strength! If I could do crow ... i could do most of them as a kid but these require a little more focus to really hold. 

Probably the same dopes that think humans roamed the Earth with dinosaurs.  God help this country.

There is even a group within the Yoga community that believes the physical exercise that we call yoga was imported into their culture. Do a little research on "primitive gymnastics." This is a fringe group in the yoga community but they postulate that the exercise forms is a new part of the 8 limbs of yoga. If this is true then yoga as we in the West understand it (Ashtanga yoga) is just a physical exercise and not a means of indoctrination as the detractors are proposing.

I read an article several months ago in Yoga Journal. November 2010. http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/2610

Some food for thought.

Anyways, in my opinion, any exercise is good exercise.

So get the ____ up off your fat ___ and exercise buttercup!!!!

I'm guessing your opposition is because it isn't fun?  Just so you know, it's not (at least in my kid's yoga class) anything like an adult class at the Y.  It's done in different ways to make it fun.  The instructor will tell a story and incorporate the kids doing poses to act it out.  Or they'll learn a new pose and then pretend to be the animal it's named after.  With downward dog, everyone starts barking.  They sing a modified Old McDonald song with animals that are yoga poses.  They throw in a little tai chi, which my son is convinced makes him a trained ninja warrior.

My kid is 6.  He wouldn't sit through two minutes of a standard, adult yoga class, just as he wouldn't sit still for a math lecture.  Doesn't mean you stop teaching math, it means the teacher needs to find a fun way to teach to the kid's age.  This is no different, the teacher is finding a way to make exercise fun.  And my kid loves it.

You guys are actually surprising me on this one.  I thought most of you were for separation of church and state no matter what the religion.  But it seems to be more of a separation of Christianity and state with no issues whatsoever in teaching an exercise class rooted in Hinduism beliefs.

How is practicing Yoga and teaching the aspects of Hinduism to kids not a violation of that separation?

If I have a Jesus Jacks class and while the kids are doing their Jesus Jacks they recite how hey can have inner peace through a relationship with Jesus I suspect you'd have issues with that.

Now, all that being said I have no problem at all with them teaching Yoga and I also have no problem with the church being involved with kids and schools.  I'm a big proponent on kids needing more faith in their lives, no matter what form it comes in.  But, I'm one of those whack job religious types so please disregard my opinion. 

Who you calling a dope?  I have proof.

Flintstones!!!  booya, there it is...

Did you read the article?  Where did it say they were teaching aspects of Hinduism?

Yep, I did read it:

She said while the teacher called it an "opening sequence" the connotation was the same in her mind: Students were learning to worship the sun, which went against her Christian beliefs that only God should be worshipped.

So call it stretching and problem solved.

the anti-yoga mom said that.  the article points out that the yoga teacher doesn't do prayer positions, meditations, etc.  they do the sun salutation because it is a standard part of yoga, but they are not told to worship the sun...